By Roy L Hales
Grace Islet is a recognized First Nations burial site, on Salt Spring Island, which Alberta businessman Barry Slawsky purchased in 1990. He was recently given the go-ahead to build his holiday home, providing he puts it on stilts that go over the burial cairns. This prompted a series of protests by First Nations and Salt Spring Island residents. The most recent development in this ongoing controversy was a proposal that the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) expropriate the islet, possibly turning it into a burial park. A decision was reached last night, CRD Will Not Expropriate Grace Islet.
The CRD Board decided this motion is outside the scope of CRD’s authority.
“The CRD is committed to building strong and enduring relationships with neighbouring First Nations, and this unfortunate situation highlights the critical need to update the provincial legislation to better reflect the public’s expectations regarding the protection and respect afforded to First Nations heritage sites,” said CRD Board Chair Alastair Bryson in a press relase. “I am convinced that we can work to ensure that development can be done respectfully and look forward to learning from the issues raised in the Grace Islet development and with the help of First Nations, finding a new way forward.”
He added that, “The owner of Grace Islet has a building permit and Provincial Archaeological Branch approval to build a private residence on what First Nations have identified to be a cultural heritage site.”
“My client is proceeding on the basis of the archeological advice he has been given. … He has been simply following that without taking any philosophical position as to whether something should be called a burial or a bone or a heritage object,” said Slawsky’s lawyer, John Alexander.
The CRD Board directed staff to convene an inter-governmental meeting in the autumn of 2014 with representatives of First Nations, the Archaeology Branch and the Islands Trust “to restore trust and identify specific improvements to development approval procedures that will increase protection of First Nations cultural heritage sites within the Capital Region.”
Meanwhile the appearance of the photos on this page have prompted the suggestion that Grace Islet’s owner is encasing the cairns with cement.
They were taken by the Security Guard at Grace Islet, who has allegedly “quit the job for obvious reasons of morality and ethics.”
In the picture at the top of this page, burial cairn RF 10 is covered by plywood. According to a Ministry spokesperson, the boxes were “made to protect these cairns during construction.”
This raises the question what is rectangular concrete structure to the right of the foundation wall? They must serve some purpose. Is something being covered? A similar layout, with a plywood box on one side of the wall and a similarly shaped concrete structure on the other side, is found with cairn RF-3.
One might also ask, what happened to the stilts that were supposed to span these structures?
According to Joe Akerman, when Slawsky’s house is finished it will completely cover a burial third cairn.
Chiefs from Tsartlip, Tseycum and Cowichan tribes have all expressed concern about what is transpiring.
Global news recently reported a story about a pioneer cemetery in Fernie which “disappeared.” (It is published in two parts, which you can find here and here.)
“During consultations with First Nations the offer was made to relocate the cairns in the immediate area of the building site and that offer was turned down by the First Nations,” the Ministry spokesperson said.
“The Minister has indicated that he recognizes that although all the permits have been legally issued, that the current situation is not ideal. The ministry is willing to work collaboratively with all the parties on an alternate resolution to this issue.”
What about buying the property? Slawsky paid $270,00 when he bought the property on December 14, 1990. The land (only) was recently assessed at $590,000.
